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When she was 12， Cai Qun and her elder sister were sent out by their impoverished family from their village in southwest China’s Guizhou Province to earn a living.
The two girls walked for more than 100 km on tortuous mountains routes to reach provincial capital Guiyang， where they became scavengers to survive.
They lived in a rotting wooden shack， becoming drenched to the skin whenever it rained. They ate whatever they could salvage from garbage bins.
However， the hardship steeled her and ignited an aspiration for a happy life.
During the Fifth Session of the 12th National People’s Congress （NPC） in Beijing in March， Cai， now a NPC deputy， talked to the media about those days of hardship and how she managed to build a new life.
She brought out her iPad， showing journalists the means of her rescue from poverty： her batik embroidery craftsmanship.
With the skill， Cai came back to her hometown， taught the art to more villagers and developed a local industry that has helped not only her but others in the village emerge from poverty.
“Scan this piece of embroidery and you’ll get an interactive video，” she said. “It will show you how the batik embroidery is done. You can also see our 3，000-squaremeter workshop and the dancing embroiderers.”
Learning to survive
In 2000， Cai went to the coastal provinces to work as a laborer， but things were only marginally better.
“We worked hard in the factories but were paid little，” she said. “During fi ve years， we went back home for the Spring Festival only twice as we could not afford the travel expenses.”
She was married by that time and had a daughter. It was diffi cult leaving the child in the village while she went out with her husband， looking for work.
The first turning point came during the Spring Festival in 2006. “I was very good at embroidery and local offi cials encouraged me to participate in a contest， designing tourism products，” she said.
She made an embroidered belt and it won an award， carrying a purse of 2，000 yuan （$289）.“It was beyond my expectations，” Cai said.
She began to take part in other contests and in the following years， her batik embroidery won prizes in both the prefecture and province. She discovered commercial opportunities in the old handicraft and in 2009 returned to her hometown to start her own business with her slender savings.
“I had little money at that time. Borrowing from many people， I raised 50，000 yuan（$7，242）， buying sewing machines， raw materials and employing two embroiderers. The fi rst days were extremely hard.” She decided to make tourism souvenirs of the Miao ethnic group. Besides batik， Guizhou boasts other rich ethnic arts such as the making of silver ornaments， weaving， ceramics and lacquer works， which provides the province a natural cultural museum with great potential.
When buyers liked her souvenirs， Cai tried to expand the market. But as her souvenirs lacked packaging and were not advertised， few showed interest.
Still she persisted and the next break came when she was displaying her embroidery at a fair in Shanghai. A businessman saw her works and gave her an order worth 100，000 yuan （$14，484）. This gave her confi dence as she had always believed that the craftsmanship handed down by one’s ancestors can help to create wealth.
Girl power
Targeted poverty alleviation is especially important in Guizhou， a mountainous province with 4.93 million impoverished people， the largest impoverished population and the most serious poverty in China. Guizhou is a major battlefi eld in China’s fi ght against poverty.
Girls in the village start to learn batik and embroidery at a very early age from their mothers， who learnt the art from their mothers too. If the art is given contemporary touches， it can create a lot of valuable things. While working outside， Cai found that some craftsmanship skills， though not as good as batik embroidery， were well received in the market. It made her think that with the support of the government， batik embroidery could have a bigger market.
In 2013， Guizhou launched a program to boost women artisans’ skills， help with their startups and find employment for them. Consequently， the number of females engaged in the handicraft industry reached 500，000， with its output value touching 5 billion yuan （$724 million） in the year.
The local government treats batik embroidery as an important part of targeted poverty alleviation efforts. While Cai’s factory has expanded from the original minuscule one， its number of workers has jumped to 300.
“Our products are sold in the United States， South Korea and Malaysia，” Cai said. “More and more villagers have come back from outside as they can now easily earn 3，000 yuan （$434） a month near their homes and take care of their children and parents.”
Villagers have also opened online shops and last year the income from online sales and other channels grew to 8 million yuan（$1.1 million）. Ouyang Qiasen， an author， NPC deputy and Chairman of Guizhou Writers Association， gives a voice to Guizhou through his writing. Like Cai， he is also involved in targeted poverty alleviation through culture.
In 2016， Ouyang became the head writer of a TV series depicting the development of Guizhou’s traditional ethnic embroidery. The heroine of the series， Feng Xiaodie， based on Cai Qun， starts her business from the family workshop and goes on to develop it into a large company.
Ouyang said culture can play a big role in Guizhou’s poverty alleviation efforts. The program is expected to persuade more and more migrant workers to come back to their hometowns so that left-behind children and old people have able-bodied people to take care of them.
At the NPC annual session， Cai sought fur- ther government support for small and micro businesses in rural areas so that children are not separated from their migrant parents and the phenomenon of “left-behind children” is addressed.
Government support
To help more community-level craftsmen launch their own businesses， Guizhou has its Starlight project. It encourages women to begin their own handicraft businesses， which would create more jobs for locals. Cultural heritage-based poverty alleviation projects and favorable policies seek to maximize the value of dormant local intangible cultural heritage.
The Ministry of Culture runs an intangible cultural heritage craftsmanship training program. It especially targets thousands of impoverished farmers so that they acquire means of livelihood.
Guizhou is the first province where the ministry has promoted the training program. The aim is to protect heritage through production projects. In this way， while being protected， cultural heritage also helps to enrich the locals. Xu Jing， head of Guizhou Provincial Department of Culture， said 10，000 local artisans have been trained so far.
Guizhou Provincial Commission of Economy and Information Technology is also training marketing personnel who will help run service platforms for small and medium-sized traditional craft enterprises.
Xu said the training program also seeks to address the shortage of well-known ethnic brands， the lack of their market competitiveness and low overall capability. These programs are to help intangible cultural heritage heirs bridge the gap in modern cultural taste， basic knowledge of the arts， as well as designing and marketing sense， so that they will be able to create better products.
Guizhou’s handicrafts are economic resources as well， a valuable foundation for cultural innovation industries. Cultural heritage protection and economic development can be integrated， giving rise to new industries and markets.
During the 13th Five-Year Plan （2016-20） period ， Guizhou is focusing on building a cultural industry system as a pillar industry that will become worth hundreds of billions of yuan.
The two girls walked for more than 100 km on tortuous mountains routes to reach provincial capital Guiyang， where they became scavengers to survive.
They lived in a rotting wooden shack， becoming drenched to the skin whenever it rained. They ate whatever they could salvage from garbage bins.
However， the hardship steeled her and ignited an aspiration for a happy life.
During the Fifth Session of the 12th National People’s Congress （NPC） in Beijing in March， Cai， now a NPC deputy， talked to the media about those days of hardship and how she managed to build a new life.
She brought out her iPad， showing journalists the means of her rescue from poverty： her batik embroidery craftsmanship.
With the skill， Cai came back to her hometown， taught the art to more villagers and developed a local industry that has helped not only her but others in the village emerge from poverty.
“Scan this piece of embroidery and you’ll get an interactive video，” she said. “It will show you how the batik embroidery is done. You can also see our 3，000-squaremeter workshop and the dancing embroiderers.”
Learning to survive
In 2000， Cai went to the coastal provinces to work as a laborer， but things were only marginally better.
“We worked hard in the factories but were paid little，” she said. “During fi ve years， we went back home for the Spring Festival only twice as we could not afford the travel expenses.”
She was married by that time and had a daughter. It was diffi cult leaving the child in the village while she went out with her husband， looking for work.
The first turning point came during the Spring Festival in 2006. “I was very good at embroidery and local offi cials encouraged me to participate in a contest， designing tourism products，” she said.
She made an embroidered belt and it won an award， carrying a purse of 2，000 yuan （$289）.“It was beyond my expectations，” Cai said.
She began to take part in other contests and in the following years， her batik embroidery won prizes in both the prefecture and province. She discovered commercial opportunities in the old handicraft and in 2009 returned to her hometown to start her own business with her slender savings.
“I had little money at that time. Borrowing from many people， I raised 50，000 yuan（$7，242）， buying sewing machines， raw materials and employing two embroiderers. The fi rst days were extremely hard.” She decided to make tourism souvenirs of the Miao ethnic group. Besides batik， Guizhou boasts other rich ethnic arts such as the making of silver ornaments， weaving， ceramics and lacquer works， which provides the province a natural cultural museum with great potential.
When buyers liked her souvenirs， Cai tried to expand the market. But as her souvenirs lacked packaging and were not advertised， few showed interest.
Still she persisted and the next break came when she was displaying her embroidery at a fair in Shanghai. A businessman saw her works and gave her an order worth 100，000 yuan （$14，484）. This gave her confi dence as she had always believed that the craftsmanship handed down by one’s ancestors can help to create wealth.
Girl power
Targeted poverty alleviation is especially important in Guizhou， a mountainous province with 4.93 million impoverished people， the largest impoverished population and the most serious poverty in China. Guizhou is a major battlefi eld in China’s fi ght against poverty.
Girls in the village start to learn batik and embroidery at a very early age from their mothers， who learnt the art from their mothers too. If the art is given contemporary touches， it can create a lot of valuable things. While working outside， Cai found that some craftsmanship skills， though not as good as batik embroidery， were well received in the market. It made her think that with the support of the government， batik embroidery could have a bigger market.
In 2013， Guizhou launched a program to boost women artisans’ skills， help with their startups and find employment for them. Consequently， the number of females engaged in the handicraft industry reached 500，000， with its output value touching 5 billion yuan （$724 million） in the year.
The local government treats batik embroidery as an important part of targeted poverty alleviation efforts. While Cai’s factory has expanded from the original minuscule one， its number of workers has jumped to 300.
“Our products are sold in the United States， South Korea and Malaysia，” Cai said. “More and more villagers have come back from outside as they can now easily earn 3，000 yuan （$434） a month near their homes and take care of their children and parents.”
Villagers have also opened online shops and last year the income from online sales and other channels grew to 8 million yuan（$1.1 million）. Ouyang Qiasen， an author， NPC deputy and Chairman of Guizhou Writers Association， gives a voice to Guizhou through his writing. Like Cai， he is also involved in targeted poverty alleviation through culture.
In 2016， Ouyang became the head writer of a TV series depicting the development of Guizhou’s traditional ethnic embroidery. The heroine of the series， Feng Xiaodie， based on Cai Qun， starts her business from the family workshop and goes on to develop it into a large company.
Ouyang said culture can play a big role in Guizhou’s poverty alleviation efforts. The program is expected to persuade more and more migrant workers to come back to their hometowns so that left-behind children and old people have able-bodied people to take care of them.
At the NPC annual session， Cai sought fur- ther government support for small and micro businesses in rural areas so that children are not separated from their migrant parents and the phenomenon of “left-behind children” is addressed.
Government support
To help more community-level craftsmen launch their own businesses， Guizhou has its Starlight project. It encourages women to begin their own handicraft businesses， which would create more jobs for locals. Cultural heritage-based poverty alleviation projects and favorable policies seek to maximize the value of dormant local intangible cultural heritage.
The Ministry of Culture runs an intangible cultural heritage craftsmanship training program. It especially targets thousands of impoverished farmers so that they acquire means of livelihood.
Guizhou is the first province where the ministry has promoted the training program. The aim is to protect heritage through production projects. In this way， while being protected， cultural heritage also helps to enrich the locals. Xu Jing， head of Guizhou Provincial Department of Culture， said 10，000 local artisans have been trained so far.
Guizhou Provincial Commission of Economy and Information Technology is also training marketing personnel who will help run service platforms for small and medium-sized traditional craft enterprises.
Xu said the training program also seeks to address the shortage of well-known ethnic brands， the lack of their market competitiveness and low overall capability. These programs are to help intangible cultural heritage heirs bridge the gap in modern cultural taste， basic knowledge of the arts， as well as designing and marketing sense， so that they will be able to create better products.
Guizhou’s handicrafts are economic resources as well， a valuable foundation for cultural innovation industries. Cultural heritage protection and economic development can be integrated， giving rise to new industries and markets.
During the 13th Five-Year Plan （2016-20） period ， Guizhou is focusing on building a cultural industry system as a pillar industry that will become worth hundreds of billions of yuan.